When justice lewis Powell stated that racial and ethnic distinctions require

Lewis F. Powell Jr. took his seat in the U. S. Supreme Court in January 1972. Powell took a moderate-to-liberal stance on such issues as legalized abortion and civil rights questions. Among his most well-known decisions was Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), in which Powell led the court in ruling that affirmative action was constitutional to achieve diversity.